There was no sign of Samantha Mumba but Ivor Callely TD was on hand to open Dublin's newest ice rink.
The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, before putting his skates on and taking to the rink with his wife, Jennifer, and three children, Aoibheann (17) Ronán (15) and Oliver (10), declared the rink, which is located beside the Clarion Hotel in the Irish Financial Services Centre, officially open.
Mike Hannon, director of Beaumont Hospital Foundation, hopes the ice-rink will help raise more than €50,000 as part of a fund-raising drive, which will include a special skatathon day at the Siemens Mobile Ice @ IFSC on January 12th, he said.
The rink will remain open for business until January 15th, according to young entrepreneur, Hugh Ó Móráin (22), who is responsible for bringing the artificial ice-rink to Dublin. It costs €9.50 per adult and €7.50 per child and can be booked from the newly-established TicketLord, which does not charge a booking fee at 01-429 4004.
While many were setting off across the slippery rink in the IFSC, across the river in Buswell's Hotel, politicians were putting their skates on (metaphorically) to race over from the Dáil to collect a copy of The Irish Times Nealon's Guide to the 29th Dáil & Seanad.
"I'm a mission impossible man," said Denis O'Donovan TD from Cork South-West, who was finally voted in after running in five consecutive elections, as he queued to get his book autographed by Ted Nealon, the writer, former journalist, broadcaster, TD and government press secretary.
"Welcome back between the covers," he wrote into Senator Terry Leyden's copy of the book, which is edited by Geraldine Kennedy, editor of this newspaper, and published by Gill and Macmillan and The Irish Times. Leyden was delighted with the inscription. The Roscommon senator was last in the Dáil in 1992 as Minister for Trade and Marketing.
Feargal Nealon, the writer's son, was by his father's side at the book launch. His own career as a documentary maker is just under way. His latest film about Irish whip wrestling is currently in post-production, he says.